Nursing Home Reporting Flexibilities
We remind nursing home members that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has waived the requirement for nursing homes to report Payroll-Based Journal (PBJ) staffing data for the first quarter of calendar year (CY) 2020 that would otherwise have been due by May 15th (see page 2 of the CMS document available here). Reporting for this period is optional; providers not experiencing disruptions may want to continue reporting. Medicare cost reports that would be due at the end of May for providers using a calendar fiscal year are now due at the end of July (see page 7 of the CMS document available here). In addition, sequestration has been suspended for the remainder of the year, meaning that the 2 percent reduction to Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) payments that providers would have otherwise experienced will not occur for dates of service between May 1st and Dec. 31st.
While we continue to advocate for State flexibilities, there has not yet been an announcement of the due date for the Medicaid cost report. The Department of Health (DOH) had initially indicated that the due date would be in July, but the software has not yet been posted. Similarly, the State has not yet provided any flexibility related to requirements for filing monthly cash receipts assessment reports and payments. We are awaiting DOH to determine whether provider relief funding, which we argue should be exempt since it represents Medicare funding, is subject to the assessment.
Contact: Darius Kirstein, dkirstein@leadingageny.org